Plate hanger



I. MELINE PLATE HANGER July 22, 1952 Filed March 30, 1949 Patented July 22, 1952 PLATE HANGER Irving Meline, Boston, Mass., assignor to Glen brooke Manufacturing Company of Connecticut, IncorporaterLNew Haven, Conn, a corporation of Connecticut Application March so, 1949, Serial No..84,440

1 Claim. (01. 24831) The invention hereinafter described relatesto devices for grasping the rim of plates and dishes of various kinds and-supporting them in pendent position next to a wall, such asthe wall of a room or a china closet or cabinet, or other upright surface. It is entitled .plate hanger for descriptive purposes. Among the objects of the invention are. to provide a hanger for the purpose set forth which can be easily and quickly adjusted to grasp plates and other dishes of a wide range of diameters and also dishes of different depths, such as shallow or deep plates, bowls, etc. Another objectisto provide such a construction that the hanger, when grasping a dish and suspended next to a wall, will hold the dish symmetrically, that is, without being canted to either side. Other objects appear from the following detailed description of a plate hanger embodying the principles, and preferred structural features and details of the invention.

In the drawings which accompany this specification,

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the plate hanger in the position which it occupie when grasping a shallow plate and hung next to a wall;

Fig. 2 is a side view of the same as seen from the right of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing the adaptability of the hanger for accommodating deep dishes;

Fig. 4 is an exploded View of the hanger;

Fig. 5 is a detail cross section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 1.

Like reference characters designate the same parts wherever they occur in all the figures.

The hanger is made principally of lengths of wire and straps or clips of sheet metal. The wire used is thick enough to have strength and stiffness adequate for the purpose and is sufficiently non resilient and ductile to permit of being bent by the users fingers, when necessary, in order to engage its hook elements with the rim of a plate.

The body or central part of the device is made of a piece of wire bent double at mid length so as to provide two parallel legs or rods III and I I with a narrow space between them. The bend is widened to form an eye I2 adapted to be passed over a hook or nail or the like set into a wall, as indicated by Figs. 2 and 3. The extremities of the rods I and II are curled back on a short radius to form eyes I3 and I4 situated side by side in parallel planes perpendicular to the plane of the rods.

Two lower arms I and I6 are formed of another piece of wire bent double at its mid length 2 to form a loop I! with short parallel sides, from which the arms I5 and I6 diverge symmetrically. The extremities of these arms are bent up to form hooks I8 and l 9 and the arms are bent forwardly at suitable locations between the loop and the hooks. This pair of arms is connected with the main portion by passing one of the extremities through the parallel eyes I3 and I4 until the loop I? occupies these eyes, and a clip or strap 2|] of sheet metal is placed back of the parallel side elements of loop I1 and curled tightly around these side elements.

The arms l5 and I 6 thus are in integral connection with each other and in hinged engagement with the central part of the hanger, whereby they can be set at different inclinations as needed to accommodate plates and dishes of difierent depths.

Two upper arms 2| and 22, substantially similar to the lower arms, are formed in the same way with a central loop 23 and hooks 24 and 25 at their extremities. A sheet metal stra 26 is placed around the parallel side members of loop 23 so as to embrace both these members and the rods Ill and II.

The illustrated arrangement of these parts enables the rods Iil and I l to serve as a track and the strap or clip 26 to serve as a trolley or slide adapted to travel lengthwise on this track and to maintain the upper arms 2| and 22 in guided movable connection with the track.

A helical spring 2'! surrounds the track rods between the upper and lower pair of legs. Its lower end is curled to form an eye 28 which surrounds the loop II of the lower legs and its upper end has a similar curled eye 29 which surrounds the loop 23 of the upper legs. Both eyes 28 and 29 project into the space between the legs or rods Ill and II.

In connecting this hanger with a plate, the hooks I8 and I9 of the lower arms are engaged with the rim of the plate below the center and the slide, composed of the strap 26 and upper arms, is moved upward until the hooks 24 and 25 are carried past the upper rim of the plate and enabled to pass over it. Spring 2? then draws the two pairs of legs together and causes their hooks to hold the plate firmly. When the hanger is suspended from a hook or the like against a wall, and a shallow plate, such as that indicated by broken lines in Fig. 1, is grasped by the arms, the plate hangs parallel to the wall. Although the outwardly bent formation of the arms causes the plate to be separated more or less from the wall, yet the construction of the hanger, with parallel rods l0 and H, the strap 26 embracin them, and the loop or eye 24 of the spring located between the rods, causes the plate to be parallel to the wall and prevents the plate from tipping so that its rim at either side is nearer to the wall than the opposite side.

Deep dishes and bowls of considerable depth can be engaged with the hanger by swinging the lower arms forward around the hinge provided by the eyes l3 and M. The manner of engagement with such a dish is shown in Fig. 3. Then, although the rim of the dish is in an inclined plane, yet the cooperative action of the parts It, 51, 26 and 29 causes the dish to :hangsymmetrically with reference to the wall in such a case as well as with shallow dishes.

By symmetrical in this connectionI mean that both ends of the horizontal diameter of the dish are held at substantially the same distance from the wall against which the hanger is suspended.

and other materials than metal, when desired. For examplefcorresponding parts to'those described may bemade of one oranother of the suitable known plastics.

Hangers having the characteristics here described are constructed in different dimensions and proportions for holding plates and dishes 4 larger or smaller than the range of adjustability possible with any one size of hanger.

What I claim is:

A plate hanger comprised by a body portion formed of a length of wire bent double to form parallel rods with a suspension eye at the bend and eyes located side by side at theextremities of said rods, a pair of lower ar-ms formed of a length of wire bent in the middle to form a loop with short parallel sides contained within the last named eyes of said parallel rods, a strap embracing said sides, the arms below said strap being divergent from one another and having hooks on their extremities, a pair of upper arms formed of a length of wire bent in mid length to provide a loop with parallel sides, a strap embracing said parallel sides and the side rods of the body portion in sliding engagement with the rods, said upper arms being divergently bent above said straps and having hooks on their extremities, and a helical spring surrounding the body portion between said pairs of arms having; eyes at its opposite ends which embrace, respectively, the loop of the lower arms and the loop oi the upperarms.

IRVING MELINE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of 'record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 711,056 Larkin Oct. 14,1902 1,010,633 Jacobson Dec. 5, 1911 2,265,701 Richards Dec. 9,1941 2,488,243 Schneir- Nov. 15, 1949 

